The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-11-17

In my baby daysl used to labor under
the queer notion-labored under by most
children, Isuppose-thst oil the famous
men and women Of history, and all per.
sons Of rank and Office, were possessed
Of bodies corresponding In height to the
measure Of their celebrity or the dignity
Of their station. I well remember how,
when poring over the chronicle Of some
great and good king of old, or when read
ing the story Of Warrington and his
companions of Revolutionary times, I
would confound the idea Of their moral
greatness with that Of their physical
size : and how, for each valorous deed,
each battle won, each act Of kindness,
my Imagination supplied an inch to their
lengths In the flesh. But as . man pro-
ceeds on the journey of life the notions Of
childhood are one by one discarded.
Indeed, It 10 remarkable fact that
the men who are four stories high
(as Fuller says) are often found to have
little In their cocklofts, and are gener-
ally characterized by bodily weakness.
Dwarfs are apt to be active, intelligent,
long-lived persons.
The Emperor Marcus Antonius had .
dwarf named Sisyphus, who, though not
quite two feet high. was endowed with
great cleverness, 90 that in his case we
may justly reverse the proverb and say
wit was the soul of brevity. Philetas Of
Cos, the tutor Of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
was so small and light that, according
to Elian, he carried leaden weights in
his pockets to prevent his being blown
away. The dwarf of the notorious
Commodus was so great . favorite
with his master that he was sur
named Phliocommodus, and 1t was
he who, though accidentally, caused the
murder of .he Emperor. One morning,
when Commodus had, as was his wont,
selected and written in book the names
of the persons who were to be assassi-
mated on the following night, he went to
take bath, hut left the book lying on
his bed The dwarf took it, and going
away, began to play with it. A conf
dante Of the Emperor, noticing him,
read the names in the book, among
which, to her horror, was her own. Inn
mediately she apprised the rest of the
intended victims of the design of Com
modus, and his death was forthwith
agreed upon. A cup Of poisoned wine
was handed him as he left the bath, but
as this acted too slowly, his favorite,
Narcissus, was bribed into stran-
Cling him.
Sir Christopher Wren, who built st.
Paups Church, London, was adiminutive
creature; and when Charles II told him
that the apartments in his hunting-palace
we're much too low, Sir Christopher,
turning his gaze on high, said: "Sir,
I think they are high enough" The
King, STOPPING to Wren's height, and
crouching about in that attitude, said
laughingly: "Ay, my friend, think
they are high enough" Isaac Newton,
Immediately after his birth, was so small
his mother said she might have put him
in quart mug. A remarkable dwarf
was John Coan, an Englishman, born
in 172S. He was comely and
well-proportioned, intelligent, widely
especially in dramatic literature
and pleasant companion. He had
good voice and would sometimes mount
table and entertain company by sing
ing the song of 1.-THE Cock" initiating
the crow of chanticleer with remarkable
exactness. In 1859 he was presented to
the royal family, ON which occasion he
repeated the following lines:
Behold, most gracious princes! at your feet,
In miniature. man Of form complete;
If, honored thus, too blithely behave,
Oh, pardon at this time your little slave,
Who inward blesses his peculiar fate
That made him small, to pleasure you 30
great.
Let others boast their stature or their birth,
This glorious truth shall Hll my soul with
That now am and hope for yean shall
sing,
The smallest subject of the greatest king.
Richebourg, who died in Paris in 1858,
aged ninety, was only twenty-three
inches high. In childhood servant of
the Orleans family, and later their PEN
sioner, he was put to strange uses during
the revolutionary period-passing in
out of Paris a. an infant in . nurses
arms, but with dispatches dangerous to
carry. Richard Gibson, miniature painter
to Charles l, and his wife, who was court
dwarf to Queen Henrietta Maria, meas
ured only seven feet between them. Their
marriage took place at the instance Of
her majesty. It was an eminently happy
one, and was celebrated by Waller, the
court-poet, in pretty poem:
Design or chance makes others wive,
But nature did this match contrive;
Eve might a. well have Adam fed,
As she denied her little bed
To him. for whom Heaven seemed to frame
And measure out this little dame.
Gibson was seventy-hve years old when
he died, while his wife lived to the ad-
vsnced age Of eighty-nine. The Flemish
dwarf Louisiilo, very intelligent crsa-
ture, well versed In many Of the sciences,
was SO small and rode . horse 90 diminu-
tive that horse and rider reached . hsighl
Of but one and one-half yards. King
August Of 6axony had . dwarf who
measured two and 0ne-quarter fest, and
who is spoken Of - having possessed
great wit and learning. Hans Tramn,
the fsvorits Of Queen Eberhardine, @
cording TO his epftaph, was "by nature {
child In years, . youth; IN understand-
Ing. . man IN skill master; IN ptety,